Expansion on Thoughts + Videos

In looking back at my last post, I realized that in my tired stupor of updating the blog I forgot a few things that I feel are definitely worth mentioning.

If I didn't make it clear before, I want to reiterate how lucky I am feeling right now.  It really hit me 2 weeks ago when Kelly, Britani, and I went to a recording studio to record some English dialogue for an English ability competition our school was hosting.  Before we went to record (at a studio that charged to the tune of $100/hr), we were treated with a magnificent seafood buffet in downtown Busan.  It was phenomenal.  King crab, sushi, chinese food, fresh fruit juice, countless types of dessert..... It would take at least 3 trips to the restaurant, stuffing yourself each time, to come close to trying everything that place had to offer.  They literally had hundreds of choices of food.  And we aren't talking cheap-o heat-lamp buffets here - - - we're talking about legit, delicious food that in many cases is prepared in front of your eyes.  The post-feast was when I really started to think about how lucky I am on so many levels... from being surrounded by such awesome people and having a sweet job set-up, to being able to eat at seafood buffets in foreign countries, to having an apartment with AC.  I'm simply lucky.

One notable story happened on our trip to Jeju our last day there.  We had taken a bus WAY out in the boondocks to meet up with a company that was going to take us paragliding.  Here's the video!

So we got there really early and were wandering around looking for food, when we found a restaurant that looked promising (which was an accomplishment in itself, we were in the boondocks, remember).  We walked in and sat down, only to realize that the food they served wasn't exactly what we had in mind....

So the lady working tells us (and by US, I mean KELLY - the lady spoke in Korean, and Kelly is really good at Korean) that they only serve traditional Korean food, that she didn't think we'd like it, and that we could walk 10 minutes down the street to another place.  Well, not that there's anything wrong with traditional Korean food - it's just that we eat it all the time, and the type of traditional food they served wasn't our favorite.  

But unfortunately, 10 minutes was too far to walk out of our way given the time, so we told them we'd just go to a little store and eat some snack food before we went paragliding.

The lady working replied that "snack food isn't real food", and that her husband would drive us down the road to the other restaurant.  We politely declined again, as we were still worried about time.  So they then offered not only to drive us there, but to bring us back as well.  So here are these people, who first tell us that we shouldn't give them our business because they don't think we'd like it - and then they offer to drive us to ANOTHER restaurant and back so we could eat some legitimate food.

This was extremely nice, but we still insisted that we'd be OK and we thanked them.  

But she wouldn't have it.  She asked us if we liked jajangmyeon, a type of Chinese noodle (which we all really like), and SHE ORDERED CHINESE FOOD TO BE DELIVERED TO HER RESTAURANT FOR US!!!!

What!!??  WHO DOES THAT???

They also ordered food for themselves, too, which I thought was great because then we could pay for their meals as well since they were being so hospitable.  We all sat down together to eat, and all I can say is that the food was absolutely DELICIOUS!

So we're finishing up, and we go to pay them - and........ get this........ THEY WON'T ACCEPT OUR MONEY!!!

Do you understand what had just happened?? We went to a restaurant, and not only did they order food from another place - - they gave us our meal for free!!!  It was absolutely mind-blowing how nice those people were to us.  So while the systems in Korea don't cater to foreigners very well (the buses, immigration office, etc.), the people here sure as hell do... we don't deserve it.

I touched on the baseball game before, but here are some clips of the game.  The video does it no justice - but I'm telling you, baseball in Korea is nuts!

Anyway, I guess that's enough for now.  I've just finished reading Sophie's World, and would suggest that anyone with a slight interest in how/why our society is the way it is read it.  Gig that, and goooooood night.